Temporal Discontinuities
by SkyWideOpen
Summary: Amy has just started travelling with the Doctor - but a Doctor who never abandoned her. A Doctor who is running from a death he doesn't know already happened. Can she bring him to his senses? Can you apologise for a mistake you never actually made? AU
1. Rewind

**Well hello, hello! You probably weren't expecting this. This one came to me just now as a random idea. I couldn't find a way to work into my other fic, The Last Of The Time Ladies, but I couldn't pass it up, either. So consider this a pilot. LOTTL still has priority, never fear, but I wanted to throw this out there. See what people thought.**

**It's going to be an interesting challenge for me, because I don't know Ten nearly as well as I know Eleven or Amy. Steep learning curve and all that.**

**As with LOTTL, this will turn into an AU and a character/relationship study between the Doctor and Amy. Except it's the Tenth Doctor. Not the Eleventh. **

**Settings – Amy's still very much learning the TARDIS ropes, definitely pre-Time Of Angels. Arcs – no Silence, this is an AU. Still too hard for me, sorry.**

**Also as with LOTTL, italics are private thoughts. Should be obvious from context, though.**

**Finally, the usuals. Don't own Doctor Who or the characters, the BBC does. Reviewers get free tickets to the sixth circle of heaven etc. etc.**

**Let's get on with it.**

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><p><strong>TEMPORAL DISCONTINUITIES<strong>

_Amy Pond has just started travelling with the Doctor - but a Doctor who has never met her, a Doctor who never abandoned her for fourteen years and a Doctor who is running from a death he doesn't know already happened. Can Amy Pond bring the Tenth Doctor back to his senses? And can she really trust and forgive a man who caused such pain for her, when he doesn't even know it happened?_

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><p><strong>Chapter 1. Rewind<strong>

* * *

><p>"Thigio? What kind of planet name is that?"<p>

"Actually, that's just the literal, symbol-for-symbol translation. Phonetically, it's rather different," the Doctor remarked brightly, bounding around the console as he tilted levers and flicked switches this way and that.

"So how's it pronounced then?" Amy Pond replied, a quirk in the corner of her lip.

"Tee-zyer would be the most accurate."

Amy furrowed her brow, mild astonishment and bemusement lining her grass-green irises. "Seriously? Why's it got a 'g' in the middle, then?"

"Good question. I believe someone buggered up the official trans-phonetic manual one day when transcribing into English script, mixed up the 'zee' and 'gee' noises."

Amy glanced at him, smirking slightly. "Someone, eh? Wonder who."

"No idea what you're talking about," the Doctor replied airily, placing a broad palm on the silver flight lever and throwing it downwards. The TARDIS lurched violently, throwing Amy off-balance. A peal of laughter escaped her lips as she righted herself – she could have grabbed on to something to hold herself upright, but where was the fun in that?

_And these last two weeks have sure as hell been fun._

In the twelve years that he'd vanished, Amelia Pond had waited and waited patiently for the Doctor, making dolls, cartoons and toys about her "Raggedy Doctor", and even forcing her future-boyfriend Rory to dress up as him. Half the village thought she was completely bonkers, but so what? Amy had never been one to take the straight and narrow path. Hence her job, which raised more than a few eyebrows in the little village, especially when coupled with her rivers of thick, lustrous crimson hair, her vibrant, entrancing emerald eyes and pale legs that seemed to just go on and on.

Meanwhile, she waited. As she grew up, she became sharper, smarter, more savvy, and she learned how to play with people's thoughts the way she wanted to. So whilst everyone _thought_ she had written off the Raggedy Doctor as just an imaginary friend, she'd never given up. Not really. Not in the deepest pockets of her heart.

Then, one bright, sunny day, he'd come back... he'd come back, twelve years later than he promised. And boy did she let him know he was late, by means of a cricket bat and few choice intimidating glares. Her fury at him overrode her better sense, and she'd pushed him away, refusing to acknowledge that he really _was_ the mad alien who had eaten fish custard in her kitchen when she was a little girl. He quickly fixed that, and they proceeded to save Leadworth and Rory from a shape-shifting inter-dimensional fugitive alien who was being chased by a fleet of giant eyeball-starfish spaceships. Who in turn were threatening to burn the whole planet.

It was everything she'd hoped for and more. The world she'd dreamed about, that promise of something better, more exciting, it was all true. The world of her Raggedy Doctor was _real._

_And then he vanished again. Just like that. Not a single word of thanks, or a goodbye, or a promise to be back_.

To say the last two years had been tough was an understatement. Now she and everyone else knew he was real, that she'd not been lying all those years ago about what had _really_ destroyed the shed in her backyard. But he'd just run off again without a word, just like that. She had genuinely believed he was never coming back this time. The fact he was real only seemed to reinforce that.

She moved on. She'd even gotten engaged to Rory. But even the night before her wedding, it all felt strange, weird, hollow. As if this wasn't the life she wanted to be living, the life she _needed_ to be living. On the night before her wedding, as she slept, her dreams hadn't turned to what was supposed to be the best day of her life, mere hours away, but to a crisp, sunny morning in Leadworth, twelve years beforehand, as she sat perched on a suitcase, waiting...

...and then she'd heard it. That wheezing, whirring noise. She'd heard it only twice, but that had been enough to sear it into her memory forever. It sliced through the dream, yanking her back to consciousness.

She'd shot bolt upright and raced to the window, gazing outside to see a deep blue box, labelled "Police Box", sitting on her lawn. The time for waiting had ended at last.

Now, she looked at the man she'd waited for bounding about the console panels, twirling incessantly, a ball of irrepressible energy, youthful vigour exuding from every pore despite his immense age. _Wish I could look that good at nine hundred and seven,_ she mused. One thing she hadn't expected upon his return – he looked rather smashing. How could she not look when he'd shamelessly began to strip down right in front of her? _The bowtie doesn't help, though._

She continued to gaze at the man, a thoughtful furrow between her eyes. Had this really been worth fourteen years of waiting? Was this really worth running away from her wedding night? She didn't quite know the answer, but if the last two weeks were anything to by, she'd have one pretty soon.

"Aaaand landed! Come along, Pond!" The Doctor threw another lever, causing the TARDIS to lurch again, and took her by the hand, the pair dancing out of the TARDIS and into the alluring glow of an alien sun, the promise of an adventure hidden between the golden rays of light.

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><p>"Erm, Doctor?"<p>

The Doctor was couching down, inspecting a perfectly manicured lawn. "Yes, Pond?" he asked distractedly.

"Can I go back and get a jumper or something? It's freezing." They had walked ten minutes from the TARDIS, into the lawns of what appeared to be a large high-tech industrial facility of some kind, a sprawling complex of glittering steel buildings topped with chimneys emitting wisps of blue-grey smoke. Bizarrely, the entire complex appeared devoid of people. Or aliens.

"Your fault for wearing that skirt, surely. I'm surprised your knees haven't fallen off already."

She rolled her eyes. "Is that a yes, Doctor?"

"No."

Her mouth fell open in indignation and she gave the Time Lord her finest death glare.

"What do you mean, _no?_"

"No, you can't go back to the TARDIS," he replied sharply. He paused, before breaking into a smirk. "Because I've already one here." He reached into his tweed jacket and fished out her usual black velvet-leather jacket from within. She shook her head as he tossed the piece of clothing her way.

"Show off."

"Yeah, a bit." He flashed a grin at her before turning his attention back to the cropped grass. "So... this grass, eh. What do you think?"

"Well, it's green... and, erm, grassy. Really, really green, actually, looks in the bloom of health."

"Very good," he replied, nodding in the manner of a satisfied schoolteacher after his favourite pupil had once again given the correct answer. "In the bloom of health. Magnificent, manicured lawn. Could dig it up and plant it at a show, win a prize."

"Prizes for lawns?" Amy eyebrows had shot into her eyeline.

"Absolutely. Fourteen different planets, you could win a fortune for having a green, manicured lawn. Bit of a status symbol in the K14 cluster, they all love their lawns. Once dropped by on a lawn-testing competition, some of the-"

"Right. I get the picture." Amy interjected. The Doctor seemed somewhat put out by having his dissertation interrupted mid-sentence, but he quickly returned to his previous thoughtful contemplation of the lawn in front of them. "So what's so special about this one?"

"It's mid-winter, yet this lawn looks as if it's been taken from the height of spring. And it looks as if it were cut yesterday, but-" he suddenly bent down, sniffing the evenly-cut grass. "-it hasn't been mown in a good month or so."

"So... something's intefering with its growth? Maybe that something also took away all the people," she suggested, a moment of inspiration bursting into life within her.

The Doctor turned to look at the Scottish redhead, impressed. "Not bad. Not bad at all,"

"I try," she replied with just the slightest hint of smugness. "So we're gonna find out what's up now?"

"Pond, you read my mind," he told her, a sparkle in his eyes, as they began to move towards the complex.

* * *

><p>The building was darkened, only the dull emergency exit lighting breaking the blackness of its interior. Aside from an almost inaudible mechanical whirring, it was also dead quiet, until a clicking noise, soft but carrying throughout the cavernous expanse, pierced the silence.<p>

"So this is it? The thing's in here?" Amy whispered, somewhat creeped out by the imposing darkness and cold, artificially dry air of the building's interior.

"Yes, this is it," the Doctor replied brightly, having no such qualms.

"So what are we looking for?"

"A big black box of some kind, with lots of tubes and wires and stuff hanging off it."

"So descriptive," she remarked dryly.

"Always with the sarcasm, Pond?"

She grinned, punching him lightly on the arm. "Fourteen years, mister. I have a right to be cynical."

"I told you, it was an accident! The engines were phasing."

"Yeah, yeah. So how are we meant to find a big black box without any lights? Everything's black as far as I can see."

The Doctor flicked out his sonic screwdriver, gripping the end. He raised it above his head, directing it at the ceiling, and activated it. The familiar buzzing noise rent the air.

At once, lights burst into life up and down the room, bathing the interior in harsh white light. The Doctor lowered his sonic, smirking. "Better?"

She rolled her eyes again. "Much, thanks. Right. So, big black box, yeah?"

"Yeah. Just like that one," he told her, pointing to what was indeed a big black box, wires trailing from a panel of glittering green lights on its side, tubes leading in all directions from its top. They jogged over to it, inspecting.

"So what it is?"

"Temporal regulator. Something big, nasty happened here," he muttered, running his sonic over the panel in butterfly patterns. After a few circuits, he flicked his wrist, inspecting the reading. "Hmm. Big and nasty indeed."

"Why, what is it?"

He rested the sonic on his mouth thoughtfully. "So I assume you've noticed that all the people are missing from around here."

She groaned. "Duh. I kind of told you that I'd noticed about five minutes ago."

"Right, sorry. Well, it looks like what's happened is that the localised space-time field controller in this facility went into an uncontrolled feedback loop, causing a planetwide temporal discontinuity."

Amy blinked. "Right," she began slowly. "Now, in English?"

He tapped her on the forehead with the sonic in a slightly reproving manner. "Well, imagine a nice big flat piece of ground. Then imagine a great big crack opens up, deep enough for people to fall into. A canyon, even."

She nodded. "OK."

"Well, it's nothing like that," he told her. "But you can think it about it that way if it helps."

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "So... we're basically talking about a planet that... fell out of time?"

"Basically, yeah."

"So what happened to all the people?"

"Ah, well, people are temporally complex events, the reactive parts of time. So when the discontinuity occurred, they became delocalised."

"Delocalised?" _That doesn't sound good at all..._

"The discontinuity shifted the planet into a completely new but frozen time stream. Time simply doesn't pass on the surface of this planet, which is why the air feels like it's winter but the grass is still stuck in spring. Unfortunately, people are a bit too big to drag into a completely new time stream like that, so they got... stuck."

"Stuck? Stuck where?"

"In between," he said simply.

The colour drained from Amy's face. "So you're saying... they're all dead?"

"Oh good heavens, no. They're just stuck between time-streams, that's all, locked in a corridor between worlds. All we have to do is open the doors by reversing the feedback loop and everything will be back to normal again."

"Right." The answer didn't completely reassure her, as this 'delocalisation' business still sounded highly unpleasant. "So that's what we're here to do, yeah?"

"Got it in one, Pond."

* * *

><p>They moved deeper into the facility, passing more black temporal regulator cubes along the way. The network of pipes became denser, and the harsh industrial lighting of the large rooms gave to claustrophobic corridors, lit by dull, ominous red light.<p>

_These corridors are becoming a pattern,_ Amy mused to herself as the crouched to squeeze under a pipe that ran across the corridor at chest height.

They moved swiftly, knowing beforehand that there was no security that they'd need to deal with. No, they were all trapped between worlds, in the void between timestreams. A shiver ran down Amy's spine at the thought. _I wonder what it feels like, being delocalised._ She supposed that given they were stuck in a 'space' where time didn't exist, they probably wouldn't feel anything. They probably didn't even know what had happened. She hoped, anyway. For their sake.

Twenty minutes later, they came up to a grey wooden door. The Doctor stepped up in front of it, running it over with the sonic. "So this is it," he told her once he'd completed the scan. "The feedback loop is coming from here." He beckoned Amy over and she waited next to the door expectantly. He buzzed the sonic over the handly, and a clicking confirmed to him that the door had unlocked. He placed his hand on the handle, but didn't open it. Instead, he met the human girl's eyes, a serious, meaningful expression suddenly written on his face.

"Pond, listen to me carefully. There's a very high chance that there are pockets of raw time energy around the place. Do _not_ get anywhere near them."

"Why, what about them?"

"Raw time energy hates processed time energy like you and me. Polar opposites. They cancel each other out."

Amy didn't like the sound of that at all. "And so..."

"And so if you get too close to a pool of time energy, it will begin to erase parts of your timeline. In fact, there is a high chance that it will erase your _entire_ timeline."

Amy let her mouth fall open in shock. "So I'll... I'll..."

"You will never have existed. You will never have been born _at all_."

She took a few seconds to process this information before breaking into a smile. "Well, that's one of the more unique ways of getting lopped off, eh? But what about you? Does being a Time Lord give you some sort of protection?"

He smiled warmly at her, appreciative of her bravado and her perceptiveness. "A bit, yeah. Still don't want to get too close to it, but I'd say the erasure would be limited to the last month or so."

She made a scoffing noise. "That's nothing. What's a month against nine centuries?"

Unexpectedly, his smile fell. "A lot can happen in a month, Amelia Pond," he murmured. He twisted the handle and swung the door open.

The interior looked roughly the same as the corridor outside – but with the large exception that nothing seemed to be straight. Rather, everything seemed to curve inwards towards the centre of the room.

"Spatial distortion from the feedback event," he told her pre-emptively just as she opened her mouth to ask about the weird geometry of the room. "Space is highly curved in here because of it. Nothing to worry about. Well, it is something to worry about because it's evidence of the feedback loop, but it's nothing to worry about on its own."

"Right," Amy said slowly. "So what now?"

"Now I go over here and do my fixing thing." And he did, striding over to a panel and beginning to twiddle various knobs, throwing levers seemingly at random.

"And me?"

"You stand there and look impressed."

She rolled her eyes and plopped herself down on a chair, waiting patiently. She tried not to think about the fact that someone had probably been sitting on it before the 'feedback event'.

After a few minutes, however, her patience ran dry and she stood, moving to explore the room. She began to explore the room, whilst keeping in mind the Doctor's warning about the raw time energy. A twinge of concern reminded her that he hadn't actually told her what raw time energy _looked_ like, but she figured that it was one of those things that you could identify as soon as you saw it.

She moved around a large metal cage, inspecting its twisted surface. Its square grid pattern had been contorted into a seemingly random array of blobs and vague diamond shapes. She ran her fingers over the grid, fascinated by the effect the feedback event had had on it. As her fingers moved below her eyeline, something caught in the corner of her eye.

A little gleam of white light.

She frowned and turned, seeing the thin white light streaming from behind a steel pillar.

_That looks sorta familiar..._

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><p>The Doctor turned the last knob in the series up to the maximum, and readied his hands on the final lever. With a grunt, he pulled the lever as far down as it would go. A humming noise confirmed he'd succeded, and he broke into a triumphant smile. "All done!" He exclaimed. "Now just a few seconds and everything should be back to normal, Pond... Pond?" He looked around. There was no sign of the fiery-tongued ginger. He moved from behind the panel, frowning. <em>Where's she gone off to?<em>

"Doctor, come look at this," he heard a Scottish-accented lilt from somewhere in the distance.

He sighed in relief. "Couldn't you wait a few minutes, Amy?"

"I don't like sitting and watching whilst you do stuff, Doctor," he heard her call out. "Now come over here, there's something I want to show you." He shook her head and moved in the direction of her voice. He passed the distorted metal grille and rounded a corner where he knew Amy was standing on the other side of.

"Amy, if it's another 'weird-looking pipe', I'm going to-" He stopped mid-sentence with a gasp, freezing instantly as he took the sight before him.

Amy couldn't miss his reaction. "Weird, huh? Looks exactly like the crack in my bedroom wall when I was seven."

"Amy," he told her quietly, "Get back."

She frowned. "Why, what's so bad about it? Is some alien going to come out the other side again?"

"Get back, Amy. _Now!_" Thin white streamers had already begun to wind its way out of the pool of white light on the floor, wrapping themselves around the girl's feet. Amy finally noticed the potential danger, and staggered back into a corner as the streamers began to snake outwards from the pool of time energy at increasing speed.

"Doctor, what the hell is that?"

"Raw time energy," the Doctor told her, moving slowly towards the corner where she had pinned herself into, taking care to avoid the white tendrils working their way from the pool of time energy. "Amy, walk slowly towards me."

Her eyes darted left and right, but she couldn't see any escape. She shook her head so quickly her face seemed to blur. "I can't. I can't get out."

"You can, Amy. Just believe and you can. But you have to do it _now_."

She bit her lip, her face pale. "Just go, Doctor. Save yourself and leave me." She told him, her voice cracking.

"Amy, if you stay there, you will be _erased from time. _You will never have existed _at all!_" His voice had risen, pleading with his friend to make the jump and save herself.

She smiled wanly at him. "I'm just a little human girl. There are plenty of me running around, but only one of you. Just go. Save yourself."

He shook his head and moved his eyes over the situation, taking in all the angles and distances, sizing up his options. _Nothing for it. Let's see if those long jump lessons were worth the effort._ "Amy Pond, you are magnificent."

She closed her eyes and leaned back on the wall, readying herself for the end. "I understand. You have to leave me."

"No, Amelia, I am _never_ leaving you." He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with oxygen, and took one, two long strides forward before launching himself into the air with a great "Ally-oop!"

He sailed right over the pool of expanding white, landing just past one of the tendrils snaking its way randomly towards the human girl. "See?" He told her, pulling her into a quick embrace.

"Right," she muttered into his shoulder, a relieved grin on his face. "And now how are we gonna get out?"

"Simple. Same way. There should be enough space to-"

Amy never found out _what_ there was enough space for, however, for at that exact moment a thunderclap rent the air around them, deafening both, and a shuddering tremor raced through the ground as the feedback loop disintegrated and the articially frozen timeline merged with the greater time-stream. Men, women and children, plucked from reality by the temporal event, returned precisely where they were, completely oblivious to the extraordinary events which had occurred in their absence.

The tremor, however, came at the worst possible moment for Amy and the Doctor, still locked in a tight embrace, as they were knocked off balance, falling towards the ground... and the tendrils of time energy, the after-effects of the feedback loop still persisting after its disintegration.

The Doctor, with his enhanced Time Lord reflexes, knew instantly what had happened... and what was about to happen when they hit the floor as they fell through the air. All thoughts, schemes and memories vanished from his consciousness, replaced by a single, rigid purpose.

_Save Amy._

With every ounce of strength in his body, he twisted in mid air and heaved his arms upwards, letting go of the human as he fell. He watched her sail through the air as he crashed, alone, to the floor. She landed with a thud, skidding across the surface and slamming against a metal pipe. He smiled. _She's safe._

A tingling sensation emerged in his fingertips, and his smile faltered. He'd succeeded in saving her, but there was a cost to be paid...

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><p>Amy Pond had absolutely no clue what had just happened. One moment she was in the Doctor's arms. The next she was in the middle of an earthquake. Then she was flying through the air. Then she was curled up against a metal pipe, feeling as if someone had driven over her with a steamroller.<p>

She groaned, unfolding herself. "Doctor, in future, if you want to throw me around, can you tell me first?" No answer. "Doctor?" She rolled over, and saw the Doctor lying peacefully on the floor... his right arm bathed in a brilliant white light. _Oh no. No no no. _"_Doctor!"_ She screamed, scrambling on all fours towards him, her own pain forgotten.

He heard her moving towards him and sat up suddenly, moving rapidly away, dragging his arm, encased in white light, along the floor. "No, Amy! Stay back! The time energy hasn't begun reacting yet. It could still pass to you."

She stopped, doing as she was told. "So it's safe? It won't react?" She asked him, a sudden hope flaring within her

He smiled gently at her. A sad smile. Full of finality... of closure. "I'm afraid not. In a few seconds it will merge with my time-stream and start rewinding it."

"But you said – you said you were protected. That it would only wipe the last month." She didn't mean to shout, but she couldn't help it. _He can't be erased... he can't, he can't, he can't..._

"Absolutely right, Pond. But that means I won't have met you. It was only two weeks ago for me. When I... when I return, I won't know you."

She bit her lip, relief tempered by sadness washing through her. _"_But you'll still be the same man, right? You'll still be the Doctor?"

He closed his eyes, his brow furrowed, as the white encasing on his arm began to spread to his torso. "Yes... and no."

She stared at him, uncomprehending. "What do you mean?"

"There's no time to explain. I'll still be me, but a past me. A different me. When he comes, he'll understand."

Amy sure didn't didn't understand right now. She opened her mouth to demand an explanation, seek a way of help, but he cut her off.

"No time, Pond. Listen, now." He paused as the white casing made its way down his torso and to his legs. _Soon_. "I promised I'd be back in five minutes for you. I ended up coming for you fourteen years later,"

She waved him off, an unwanted tear falling down her cheek. She brushed it away furiously. "Shut up. It was worth it."

He smiled. "I hope it was. Ah, Amelia Pond. The girl who waited for me. I'm sorry I was only able to give you two weeks of time and space."

"But – but I thought-"

"Quiet, Pond. You'll continue travelling, don't worry. You'll have the most wonderful, incredible, exciting adventures with the Doctor. But I won't see it. But you'll be amazing for me, won't you, Amelia? Promise me that you'll be amazing."

She nodded as quickly as she could. "Of course I will."

He smiled, a final, warm smile. His cerulean-blue eyes locked with hers for the last time. "Goodbye, Amelia Pond," he whispered, as the time energy took him at last.

A dazzling brightness erupted from him, obscuring him from sight. Amy had to cover her eyes with her hand, lest she ended up blinded from the star-bright light before her.

Then it was gone, evaporating from her sight, leaving the room in dull, dark red light just as it had before.

She uncovered her eyes, and saw a man lying before her. Wearing the same tweed jacket. The same ridiculous blue bowtie. But the man within was very, very different.

He was... older. Close to ten years older by her estimation, given the lines in his face. Yet his face seemed to hold a youthful exuberance already, a boyish, ageless quality to it. She studied his chin, rounder, less angular than that of his predecessor's. His hair was chocolate brown, a few shades darker than her Raggedy Doctor's.

His eyes flew upon, hazel, deep, shot with intelligence and age, but maintaining a energetic sparkle. The man sat up, evidently not used to his surroundings as he craned his head around, taking the low metal ceiling and the dull red light.

"Well, that's rather interesting," the man spoke, his voice coloured by a sharp Estuary accent. "Didn't expect to wake up here," he muttered, clearly talking to himself. He levelled his eyes and finally caught sight of Amy at last, the redhead still staring at him in undisguised shock.

"Oooh!" He said in a mildly embarrassed tone, his eyes widening. "Sorry about not noticing you there. Hello. I'm the Doctor."

* * *

><p><strong>So what did you think? I probably won't come back to this for a while whilst I work on LOTTL, but I'll bring it forward if peeps are interested.<strong>


	2. Mistake

**So, um, I should probably explain myself. I started this, got stuck, forgot about it. Got stuck on my other story, tried this again, got stuck again, forgot again. Had an epiphany or two on my other story, did that, still forgotten about this. Then I got a few pointed reviews reminding me that, yes, this still existed, so I got back to this, and failed. _Then_ I went onto Tumblr and found that someone else had actually come up with basically the same idea as well, months after I'd originally uploaded this! So... yeah. This is a fair bit shorter than I'd originally intended, but as a kickstarter it should work. Regardless, I'm just immensely relieved I haven't just left this to die.  
><strong>

**By the way, where the Amy/Doctor relationship goes – well, I'm open to suggestions. To say that plotting this has been a challenge would be an immense understatement (and many of you know that I'm no stranger to plotting challenges). 10 isn't as familiar to me right now as 11 is, so I'm open to criticism regarding characterisation. **

**Hope this lives up to expectations.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2. Mistake<strong>

* * *

><p>Amy just stared.<p>

That was all she could do. Stare, open mouthed, unable to think, unable to speak.

"Er... you all right?" The man asked her curiously. She nodded slowly, her mouth still hanging open. "What's your name?"

The curious, inquisitive inflection on his question triggered a memory in Amy's stilled mind... of fish fingers and custard, of a man in torn, ripped clothing falling out of a box. Of the same question being asked, fourteen years previous.

"Pond – Amy Pond."

She didn't know _why_ she didn't tell him her real name. It seemed important... somehow. It just felt like the right thing to do, and she had always been a creature of instinct.

"Alright, Amy, got any clues as to where we are?" He stood, leaning forward and rotating slowly as he inspected his surroundings. He ran a finger down the wall behind him before sticking it in his mouth. "Oooh... Thigio, haven't been here in a while... wonder how I ended up here. Don't remember flying here." He sniffed the air, absorbing the scents only he seemed capable of smelling. "And big time energy residuals... interesting. Discontinuity of some kind? Could be. Might be. What do you think?"

This was moving far too fast for Amy to process. "Um..."

The Doctor barely seemed to notice her, continuing to mutter to himself. "Yeah, I reckon so. Temporal discontinuity. Maybe that's how we ended up here. Seems to have vanished now, which is lovely, although there still seems to be some space-warp..." he trailed off, examining the twisted metal grille nearby. "Doesn't tell me where the TARDIS is, though – that's a problem. But I'm sure she'll show up..."

Amy, ever sharp, saw an opening. "I know."

The Doctor continued to examine the warped grille. "Know what?"

"Know where the TARDIS is."

This got his attention. He turned to her, carefully examining her round, angelic face as if truly seeing her for the first time. "Do you now?"

Like his predecessor's, the Doctor's gaze was probing, almost laser-like in its intensity. It took all of Amy's willpower not to avert her eyes – being studied in this way by anyone other than _her_ Doctor made her deeply uncomfortable. Fortunately, he was soon satisfied by what he saw, and broke into a broad, toothy grin.

"Well, no time to lose then, eh?"

He took Amy's hand in that all-too-familiar way, strode over to the door and wrenched the handle open.

And found the muzzles of five rifles pointed straight at his chest.

_Uh oh._

"Ah. Hello," the Doctor greeted them chirpily, giving the five rather menacing black-clad men a finger-wave. Amy instinctively took a step behind him, clutching tightly to his arms.

"Um. Guns."

"Yes, Amy Pond, guns. What's with the guns, anyway?" He asked the men, whose rifles were still aimed at one of his hearts. "In fact – where is this place?"

"This is a restricted area," one of the soldiers told him mechanically. "You are under arrest for trespass into High State property."

"Ooh, am I, now? Well, in case you didn't know, I'm the Doctor. And I'm afraid that I don't particularly feel like being arrested right now, and neither does my friend here. So if you'll excuse us, we'll be on our way."

The men took a step forward, barring any possibility of escape. "No. You will come with us or face the consequences."

"Consequences? What consequences? Actually – never mind, boring question. Have you lot ever come across a sonic screwdriver before?" He asked, pulling out a thin, silver device with a deep blue light at the end – a device Amy recognised quite well, but hadn't seen in years. "Amazing thing. Even I don't know what it does from time to time. Got any ideas what it'll do when I activate it?"

No response.

"Me neither. Let's find out, eh?"

He pressed his finger down, buzzing the sonic into life. Sparks erupted all around them, deafening cracks echoing in the confined space as energy arced from weapon to weapon, their holders dropping the rifles as they yelled in alarm.

In an instant, Amy was running for her life again, hand in hand with the strange man who called himself the Doctor.

* * *

><p>Alarms blared, klaxons piercing the air as the pair bolted out of the facility housing the temporal engines. They heard angry and confused shouts behind them from the workers who had just been returned to existence again, oblivious to the furore that had happened within.<p>

They took no notice. They just ran. Through darkened, narrow corridors. Through the great cavernous hall where they'd first entered. More security guards were after them, but the Doctor killed the lights with his sonic, disorienting them. They headed out into the open sunshine, the now-balmy spring air enveloping them as they ran.

They stopped in the grassy space outside the complex, where the Doctor – the _previous_ Doctor – had pulled Amy's jacket out of nowhere. As if he was expecting her to ask, and was just waiting for her to complain about the cold. Two weeks, that was all they'd had, and her Raggedy Doctor had already known her like the back of his hand.

_Show-off_, she thought sadly as she recovered her breath.

"You alright? Not an asthmatic, are you?" The Doctor, whose two hearts did a far superior job of keeping him sprightly than Amy's one, moved over to her, placing a concerned hand on her back. She flinched involuntarily, still unable to process the strange, chocolate-haired man in that stupid, familiar tweed jacket and bow-tie.

"Nah, I'm fine." She shook her head. _Don't get distracted now, Amelia._ "The TARDIS is about ten minutes up this hill."

"Erm – not to be rude, but how-"

"Police box, bigger on the inside, travels through time and space? I know what it is," she snapped, the day's events having left her deeply on edge. "So let's go."

If he was alarmed by her behaviour, he didn't show it, keeping a cheerful yet strangely impassive expression on his face. "Well, lead on, Amy Pond."

They reached the TARDIS ten minutes later. Amy even managed to outpace the Doctor for once – a product of the fact that the clothes and shoes he'd inherited didn't _quite_ fit and clearly somewhat uncomfortable for him. He'd already ripped off the bowtie and jammed it into his pocket, complaining that it chafed his neck and wondering what godawful bet he'd lost to have to wear _that_.

That had drawn a smile from Amy – but only a brief one.

All in all, she tried not to think about _him_ or anything else other than the fall of her feet, left-right-left-right as she ran. It was a welcome sight when the familiar deep blue of the police box greeted them around a corner, sitting nonchalantly on the pavement – just as they'd left it. Just as _he'd_ left it.

"There. TARDIS," she said curtly to the man following behind her, not even bothering to turn and acknowledge him visually. She needed a hell of a lot more time before she could even begin to work out what it all meant with... with him.

Right now, what she needed was to get to her room, lock herself in and throw away the key for the rest of the day, so she could just _think_. And work out what the hell had just happened.

She didn't even hear the Doctor's confused, alarmed cry as she wrenched the TARDIS doors open, strode inside and took the stairs two at a time to head to her room.

* * *

><p>The Doctor's life had certainly taken a turn for the surreal in the last few months of his life, even by his standards. Ever since he'd sworn not to take a new companion on the Nobles' doorstep, his hearts unable to take any more of the stress of one of his closest friends glancing by him like he didn't exist, it seemed the universe had made it its mission to register its displeasure with his decision.<p>

There was that nonsense with the man who he'd _thought_ was the next him. He'd had a lot of experience with amnesia, but even he'd been momentarily fooled by that one – the man even thought he had a sonic screwdriver! That definitely counted as strange. Then, later, a swarm of flying planet-eating stingrays had decided to cross his path, although with Christina's help that had ended swimmingly. It was sometime during this adventure that he wondered if the universe was trying to make a point... but only for a moment, as he soundly rejected her request to become a companion. Sure, she was tempting, but... no. He was a man of his word.

Even that prophecy, that bizarre utterance by Carmen...

_He will knock four times._

No. He was the Doctor. Prophecies about his 'death' and subsequent regeneration – yes, that was worrying. But he was a _Time Lord._ Time would wait for _him_, when _he_ was ready, and no prophecy would dictate to the last of the Time Lords how _he_ went about his business.

So no.

No companions.

He was planning on leaping up ahead of the girl – who, he'd immediately registered, was nothing short of stunning, and clearly the type that he'd once upon a time not have thought twice about asking on board – to thank her for her help at the TARDIS door, turn down her inevitable request to come along, then skip off on his own way.

But those damned legs of hers, not only could he not stop staring at them – she could seriously use them too. And the shoes he'd found himself in didn't fit at all. However hard he pushed himself, he simply could not catch up with her.

_Still. She'll point me to the TARDIS, I'll just skip on inside, lock the door if necessary, and – hang on._

The girl hadn't stopped. In fact, she hadn't even looked back at him. She'd just swung open the TARDIS doors and sauntered inside with a casualness that only a select few had ever displayed. As if she didn't just know about the TARDIS – she _lived_ in it. Just like any other companion.

His eyes widened in alarm as she slipped inside. "Hey – _hey!_ Wait! Um... there's a great big tree I want to show you..." _Damn._

Something clearly wasn't right here. The discontinuity. His outfit – a bow-tie, for heaven's sake! - even the TARDIS looked different. His vast mind clicked into gear.

_Amnesia? _That wouldn't have explained why the TARDIS looked subtly different, and why the girl had reacted as if she'd never seen him before, yet somehow knew him.

_Prolonged unconsciousness? _Then why here, why Thigio? Nice planet, not the place for that sort of thing. He ruled that out as unlikely – though, as he was well aware, unlikely wasn't quite the same as impossible.

_Rewind? No. Impossible. Just wouldn't happen. _Even with a temporal discontinuity there, the amount of raw time energy lying around...

No. It was theoretically possible, of course, but the chances of just enough temporal energy being present for a partial rewind and not a complete rewind (more generally known as _erasure_) – he almost laughed at the idea. There was more chance of him threading a string through the eye of the needle. Using a cannon. Where the needle was dangling from a spaceship travelling at half the speed of light. Just... not likely.

He was out of ideas. He shook his head, and stepped up to the doors, still hanging slightly ajar. Maybe Amy Pond would have some answers, since she seemed to be the one in the know. _For once._

He swung the doors of his time machine open and let out an involuntary gasp. His jaw hit the floor, his eyes rounding to saucers as the golden light of the console room fell on his face.

_Oh, you sexy, unbelievable thing..._

* * *

><p>Just as she'd planned to, Amy headed straight to her room, slammed the door shut and threw away the key. Well, in fact, she didn't throw away the key because there was no key, but the chair she'd dragged across the doorway did the same job.<p>

She sank down in her four-poster bed, staring up at the deep blue of the ceiling above her.

_It's too soon. Too goddamn soon._

She hadn't even forgiven him for abandoning her for fourteen years. _Fourteen years!_ And now he was gone, consumed by the same white light which had so terrified her as a child.

A part of her mind told her that, once again, she was being stupid. _He's still there. He's still the Doctor, he's still a genius, he's still obsessed with running. He even has his sonic screwdriver... the old one. But..._

But.

He didn't know her. She could see that in his eyes. He had no idea what _he'd_ done to her. The terrible mistake he'd made, the mistake she had been in the middle of apologising for. Because that's what the last two weeks had been about, really. Him saying sorry to her. During that time, they'd grown close, closer than Amy had ever imagined they could have – she'd even dreamt once or twice about something even more intimate, but those dreams were well and truly shattered now. No, there was not going to be any of _that_ happening any time soon.

Amy sighed, placing a pillow over her face in exasperation.

It was only mid-afternoon by her body clock, but already she felt deathly tired. She was sharp enough and as such didn't like not understanding things – it made her head swim. And right now her head felt like it was drowning. If minds could drown. She sighed again – this situation wouldn't resolve itself by her thinking herself into a tangle. _This would all be fine if he did something ridiculous and amazing again and just fixed this whole damn mistake. _

Because that's what it was.

A mistake.

One that only he could possibly fix – but would he?

_Only one way to find out._

She shot upright, flinging the pillow away with a new determination in her eyes. She wouldn't let this beat her. Nothing beat Amelia Pond.

* * *

><p>He felt like cheering. Whooping. Dancing and laughing around the console, running up and down the sudden multitude of staircases that had appeared within his – <em>his! - <em>TARDIS.

He'd never seen her so beautiful.

Like a child on their first visit to a candy shop, he found himself endlessly playing, poking, fiddling with this knob and that, taking in the warm, golden light bathing him. No coral columns, which was a shame, but in its place – staircases! How could he resist? He'd even found a pair of shoes his size at the base of one – just another little gift from the time machine that never stopped giving.

He had already bounded up one flight and was about to leap down another when a sharp, Scottish-accented voice stopped him in his track.

"Found the stairs, have you?"

The razor-like tone stopped him dead in his tracks. He hadn't even heard her come into the console room. He turned, slowly, facing the six-foot redhead standing above him. Surprised by her presence though he'd been, he hadn't forgotten his wit.

"Just testing them out. New feature, you see – _my_ TARDIS didn't have so many stairs. And the columns – where have they gone? I loved those columns." He gestured vaguely around him to where he remembered the coral-shaped supporting columns had been. Had _once_ been. "Lot bigger than I remember too – though I'm sure the old girl knows what she's doing," he concluded, patting his time machine fondly on the console.

A low hum in response drew a smile from the young-old Time Lord. At least _she_ was the same as always. He whispered a quiet endearment before twirling around again, to face the red-head who still hadn't moved from the top of the stairs, her arms folded across her chest and a rock-hard expression on her face.

"So who are you, anyway, Amy Pond, and how did you know about my TARDIS?"

Amy cocked her head to the side. "Does it matter?"

"Just a wee bit, yeah."

"And if I don't tell you?"

"We still haven't left Thigio," he pointed out.

Amy's expression didn't change, but he couldn't miss the way her complexion had paled ever so slightly at his words. Her voice, too, softened – but in a way that didn't betray an ounce of fear. "You wouldn't. I know you wouldn't. You're the Doctor."

"So I am. And I travel _alone,"_ the Doctor replied with as much force as he could without raising his voice. "Sorry."

Unbidden, a memory rose in Amy's mind, of words spoken less than two weeks previously – a memory of a simple mistake she'd made, a star-whale about to die. A memory of a man she'd half-loved, half-resented, using that exact same tone.

_When I'm done here, you're going home._

Oh yes – this was definitely the Doctor. This was definitely the lonely old man in that great big box of his. This was definitely the last of his kind. This was him – a past him, as _her_ Doctor had suggested, but definitely him.

They'd only really known each other for two weeks, but in two weeks, Amy had started to see through that mad, wacky shell that the Doctor had put on for her. Loss, pain, loneliness – she knew these things when she saw them, and the Doctor had those in spades. How, when, why – she didn't know the answers to those questions. What she _did_ know that this man needed someone. A light in the darkness, a laugh through the despair, a smile at wonders he could no longer appreciate.

She walked down the stairs, slowly, deliberately, a soft, sympathetic light in her eyes as she stepped onto the hexagonal platform. Though he didn't move or make any sign except for following her progress with his old, wise eyes, the way she'd approached him from above effectively pinned him to the console, with mere inches separating them.

He looked into her eyes, those bright emerald eyes of hers, and was momentarily breathless at the depth of understanding he saw there. It was if he was made of glass, the way she was looking at him – going straight through his myriad defences as if they didn't exist. Her eyes gazed searchingly at him, studying, before a gentle smile appeared on her lips.

"I'm sorry, too," she murmured, her breath tickling his chin.

He raised an eyebrow – that hadn't _quite_ been what he'd been expecting to hear.

"Sorry about what?"

The smile widened, breaking into a thoroughly wicked grin. "This."

And before he could so much as react, she had reached beside him to the silver flight lever that he'd seen her raggedy man pull so many times already, and yanked it downwards with all her strength.

Immediately, a violent tremor ran through the room, throwing both of them to the floor in a sprawling, half-tangled heap. The ancient time machine groaned into life, whirring as the familiar sound of dematerialisation filled the air, sparks flying from the console. The Doctor pulled himself using the edge of the console, his astonished gaze flicking between the array of flashing lights before him and the red-headed girl beside him.

"What the _hell_ have you done?"

She beamed at him. "I have absolutely no idea."

* * *

><p>"Burnt out," the Doctor muttered, pacing back and forth to himself as he took readings of the console. Amy was sitting on the seat behind him, following his every move with those large emerald eyes of hers. "Kaput. She needs to self-repair, no idea how long that'll take."<p>

"Last time it took about twenty minutes," Amy pointed out.

"Time isn't linear like that – in here, it could take a month for her just to paint a button pink with polka dots. Or could take ten seconds. Seen both in my time. And," he continued, rounding on her. "What do you mean, 'last time'? What was this 'last time'?"

Amy opened her mouth – but hesitated before any words came out, wilting under his piercing gaze. _Should I tell him?_

She was pre-empted, however, by the Time Lord. "When did you first meet me, Amy Pond? How long ago was it?"

The same question again – to be specific or not. Once again, Amy chose the latter. "A – a while."

"A while can mean a lot of things."

"I've known you – well, sort of known you for most of my life."

"Sort of?"

"It's a long story."

"We have a long time."

_Can't win against this bloke, can I?_ "Doctor. Look. I know this is gonna sound crazy, and I know you don't trust me but – can you? Please? Just for a few minutes."

He frowned, glaring at her, bending down so their eyes were level. "You burnt out my TARDIS, and you're asking me to trust you?"

She gave as good as she got. "_You_ threatened to maroon me on a planet I hadn't even heard of two hours ago."

To her surprise, the words softened his expression, filling it with something that looked strangely like... guilt. "I did, didn't I? I'm sorry about that. Wasn't thinking straight."

For one brief, wild moment, Amy was taken by the urge to just throw her arms around him and hug him until he burst – but she didn't. She would have, in another time and place, but not here. Not now.

Wherever here and now were, of course.

"Doesn't matter now," she replied off-handedly. "So. Where are we?" She pushed herself upright, walking over to the scanner which was still covered in scrawling, red-tinted symbols. He joined her a moment later, tweaking or knob or two to no discernible effect.

"No idea. She's more interested in telling me about all the nasty things that've gone wrong in the last two minutes than actually telling us where we are."

Amy took a deep breath, before turning to face him with an eyebrow raised. "So we're somewhere in space and time, we've got no idea where, no idea when, and we don't know when we can leave?"

"More or less," he replied, studying her carefully. "Could be anything out there – kings, monsters, armies, weddings, Daleks – anything."

She cocked her head, smirked and brushed past him, only pausing briefly to whisper in a low, sultry voice.

"Well, then, what are we waiting for?"

He gazed after her for a second or two, his face impassive. She spun around at the Doctor, leaning against it with her arms folded. "Doctor?"

He could say no. He could lock the doors and keep them in. He could run through the records, find out where this girl had come from, drop her back home – and then go back to his vigil of solitude. Lonely – but safe. Safe from pain, and safe from inflicting pain. All he had to do was say no to, well, all of time and space.

And he could never do that.

He broke into a broad, excitable grin, clapped his hands and all but leapt to the door, traversing the distance in just a handful of long strides. A wild, joyous light had filled his eyes as he leant into the door beside her, one hand on the door handle ready to wrench it open.

"So, Amy Pond, are you ready for _anything_?"

The smile she gave him could have illuminated a stadium. "I've been ready my whole life, _Doctor._"

He beamed at her. "Then let's not keep all of time and space a-waiting. _Allons-y!_" He wrenched open the door, flooding the TARDIS with sunlight, and stepped back into the life he thought he'd lost forever.

* * *

><p><strong>I sort of have an idea where I want to take this next, but I'll need help with this one. And reviews. Lots and lots of reviews.<strong>


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